Ian Foster Books

Both Traditional Students and Working Professionals Acquire the Skills to Analyze Social Problems. Big Data and Social Science: A Practical Guide to Methods and Tools shows how to apply data science to real-world problems in both research and the practice. The book provides practical guidance on combining methods and tools from computer science, statistics, and social science. This concrete approach is illustrated throughout using an important national problem, the quantitative study of innovation. The text draws on the expertise of prominent leaders in statistics, the social sciences, data science, and computer science to teach students how to use modern social science research principles as well as the best analytical and computational tools. It uses a real-world challenge to introduce how these tools are used to identify and capture appropriate data, apply data science models and tools to that data, and recognize and respond to data errors and limitations. For more information, including sample chapters and news, please visit the author's website.

"The Grid is an emerging infrastructure that will fundamentally change the way we think about-and use-computing. The word Grid is used by analogy with the electric power grid, which provides pervasive access to electricity and has had a dramatic impact on human capabilities and society. Many believe that by allowing all components of our information technology infrastructure-computational capabilities, databases, sensors, and people-to be shared flexibly as true collaborative tools the Grid will have a similar transforming effect, allowing new classes of applications to emerge." --From the Preface In 1998, Ian Foster and Carl Kesselman introduced a whole new concept in computing with the first edition of this book. Today there is a broader and deeper understanding of the nature of the opportunities offered by Grid computing and the technologies needed to realize those opportunities. In Grid 2, the editors reveal the revolutionary impact of large-scale resource sharing and virtualization within science and industry, the intimate relationships between organization and resource sharing structures and the new technologies required to enable secure, reliable, and efficient resource sharing on large scale. Foster and Kesselman have once again assembled a team of experts to present an up-to-date view of Grids that reports on real experiences and explains the available technologies and new technologies emerging from labs, companies and standards bodies. Grid 2, like its predecessor, serves as a manifesto, design blueprint, user guide and research agenda for future Grid systems.